Neurohacking is the science and art of upgrading the mind, brain, and body for more optimal conscious experiences and capacities. In this article, you will learn the basics of neurohacking. Furthermore, I will introduce you to the Integral Model for Cognitive and Emotional Well-being.

Neurohacking is about human optimization. It is not only about each individual getting more beauty and joy out of life, but rather about the compounding result of people benefiting from each other. If you are in a better state, I am sure you will also treat other people better.

Most of the neurohacking methods are relatively easy to practice. Of course, there are technologies on the market that cost hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. However, research suggests practicing the fundamentals first because they bring the highest benefits.

The Integral Model for Cognitive and Emotional Well-being

Cognitive and emotional well-being is split into four quadrants. In the middle, the fore-shaded areas are the fundamentals to practice in each quadrant to upgrade your mental well-being. They constitute about 80% of mental well-being. The fundamentals are very inexpensive, and almost everyone can do them. Outside the shaded areas, you can see the advanced strategies, which comprise about 20% of our well-being.

Two Key Concepts:

1. Focus on the foundations (shaded areas) before considering the advanced options.
2. All four quadrants' foundations must be completed before any well-being focus area becomes sustainable. Focusing on the foundational and advanced exercises of mind care and not even on the fundamentals of your body, the improvements of mind care will not be sustainable - all quadrants` foundations must be completed first.

The four quadrants

Mind Care

Mind Care is to upgrade your mental state through mental practices that enhance the quality of your thinking. Some examples:

• meditation,
• a creative expression like painting,
• internal reflection like journaling and
• visualization

Body Care

Body Care involves something physical to optimize the mental experience. This quadrant lays the foundation for energy, focus, and health to improve other focus areas.

The three core fundamentals are:

• sleep,
• nutrition and
• movement

More advanced subareas to experiment with are nootropics and biofeedback.

Relationships

“We are the average of the five people we spend the most time with” - one of the fundamental truths. Suppose you combine the annual income of those five people and divide it by five. In that case, chances are this is approximately the same income you earn.

Things to look at:

• the company you keep/give,
• time with yourself and
• studying human behavior science.

Environment

The environment includes all aspects of our daily experience that are not covered in the care of mind, body, and relationships. When paying attention to your environment, you can increase the potential for improvement in the other focus areas. For example, suppose you avoid blue light 2-3 hours before bedtime. In that case, your sleep quality will increase.

Other environmental factors are:

• air quality,
• sleeping conditions,
• time in nature and
• interior design.

If you want to know more about how to develop yourself further I would recommend to check out this article where I talk about how to use NLP to transform your life (in a more than positive way).